Heavy are the subjects of this year's prose books; happily, the illustration nominees lighten the mood

What will it be? Anorexia? Self-injury? Sexual abuse? Adolescent schizophrenia? Surviving a massacre? Rape? Suicide? An abused girl with Down syndrome?

Those are the heavy choices among the finalists for the Governor General’s Award for Children’s Literature (for prose). Yes, adolescence is fraught with pitfalls, but seldom does it look as unremittingly grim as it does when these novels are bundled together. It’s enough to make a person turn to Daniel Pinkwater’s parody Young Adult Novel for a little perspective.

Two finalists are openly based on their authors’ tragic experiences. They have an intensity and authenticity that renders them potent, compassionate expressions of trauma, if not the truly best Canadian kids’ books of the past year.

• Torontonian Lesley Fairfield’s graphic novel Tyranny (Tundra, 120 pages, $12.99, ages 11+) is an engaging, bare-bones portrait of anorexic thinking, from onset to tentative recovery. Fairfield’s characterization has warmth and subtlety, and the book could well have a twofold impact — helping readers understand anorexia and offering those who suffer it hope.

•Scars (WestSide Books, 248 pages, $17, ages 13+) by Toronto’s Cheryl Rainfeld, presents a similar prospect. As one blurb declares, “it could prove to be a life-saver for other young victims of abuse and self-harm.” It reads as a thriller and tale of recovery: Kendra remembers being raped repeatedly as a child but can’t recall her tormentor’s face. To fend off memory, she cuts herself — until her therapist and her new love (a beautiful, also tormented girl) help spark her memory, with life-threatening results. Plot and secondary characters are creaky, but the heartfelt portrayal of Kendra’s fear and hope is strong.

• In Me, Myself and Ike (Orca, 192 pages, $12.95, ages 13+), B.C.’s K. L. Denman charts the self-destructive anxieties of a boy suffering the onset of schizophrenia. Inspired by a prehistoric man preserved in a glacier, Kit aims to die up on B.C.’s Comox Glacier so he can be our time’s ice man. Urged on by abusive “Ike,” one of his voices, he almost dies of hypothermia before he’s rescued. A sincere consciousness-raiser tailored for “reluctant” teens, this is quick and readable but not a tour-de-force of literary artistry.

•Fishtailing (Coteau, 196 pages, $14.95, ages 13+) by B.C.’s Wendy Phillips is a free verse novel in six voices. The short poems make the story whip along and have the literary benefit of demanding that we read between the lines. The cast includes a discontent of mixed racial heritage; a refugee whose family was massacred; a teen musician frustrated by his father; a victim of rape addicted to cutting herself; a nervous English teacher and a school counselor.

• B.C. writer Gina McMurchy-Barber’s Free as a Bird (Dundurn, 168 pages, $12.99, ages 12+) plots the emotional abuse of Ruby Jean, a girl with Down syndrome who is institutionalized until a kind life-skills teacher teaches and frees her. The first-person voice here is improbable but it establishes Ruby Jean’s sensitive, lovable nature. The novel shows the value of kindness and provides a glimpse of B.C.’s infamous Woodlands School.

• B.C. artist Kristi Bridgeman’s Uirapurú (Oolichan, 32 pages, $19.95, ages 4 to 7), written by the late P. K. Page, offers deep, jewel-coloured pages like stained glass, with figures in the style of the Brazilian culture from which this magical bird story arises.

• Vancouver’s Julie Flett presents a Michif (the Cree/French/Gaelic language of the prairie Métis) alphabet book in Owls See Clearly at Night (Simply Read, 56 pages, $18.95, ages 3+). Flett’s art of paint, ink and collage — a mixture of traditional and digital —is austere, elegant and highly evocative of the landscape and culture whence it comes. Each letter represents a Métis word and its English translation. A visual and linguistic delight.

• Artist Matt James and writer Laurel Croza, both of Ontario, have already received the prestigious Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for I Know Here (Groundwood, 40 pages, $18.95, ages 4 to 7). James’ acrylic and India ink illustrations are applied on panel board with generous amounts of paint and lots of stark, deep black. The thick paint, depth of colour and board background subtly emphasize, in their visual way, Croza’s theme — the rich, founding impressions of home on a child’s psyche.

• Jon Klassen’s digital art for Caroline Stutson’s Cats’ Night Out (Simon and Schuster, 32 pages, $19.99, ages 2 to 4) stylishly renders the subdued colours of an urban nightscape and feline dancescape. Shadowed neon lights, floral ironworks and stripey laundry jazz up the space between dark buildings as more and more cats dance. By digitally repeating the same cat face, Klassen underscores multitude in this cheerful counting book.

•The Quiet Book (Houghton Mifflin, 32 pages, $15.95, ages 1 to 4) by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Renata Liwska, charms with its text as much as its art. “There are many kinds of quiet,” it begins, moving from “first look at your new hairstyle quiet” to “first snowfall quiet” and so on — from funny to thoughtful to comforting. Suitable quiet greys and browns colour Liwska’s fine-drawn pencil illustrations. She depicts a cozy animal world in which the small ups and downs of childhood are met with understanding affection. Even the porcupine looks huggable.

Deirdre Baker’s novel Becca at Sea is also published by Groundwood. Her Small Print appears every two weeks.

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